Sunday, July 31, 2016

The Connected Game

Three of every four property owners in Chicago have been hit with higher property taxes this year, a Chicago Sun-Times analysis shows — often thousands of dollars more and in some cases in the Loop and surrounding hot neighborhoods twice what they were last year.

That’s the result of a perfect storm of higher property assessments from Cook County Assessor Joseph Berrios and Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s $318 million tax hike, passed to shore up the city’s shaky finances and boost police and fire pension funds that for years have been shortchanged.

Eighteen of the city’s 50 aldermen — including Ald. Patrick O’Connor, the mayor’s City Council floor leader who rounded up the votes to pass the tax increase last fall — staved off the hefty tax hikes, shifting a total of $19,484 in taxes to other property owners. Those aldermen, including several whose wards have seen real estate prices skyrocket, did that by convincing Berrios or the Cook County Board of Review to lower the estimated value of their homes or apartments.

This is something the media ought to be harping on every single year - the double standard by which the connected avoid and evade paying what most of their neighbors end up eating.

Barrios is a fine, honest, upstanding individual, who would never play fast and loose with property tax assessments. And, he is ethical too. Just ask any of his relatives that he put on the payroll. And, there are plenty to ask.

I think that Joseph Berrios is in on the real estate tax increase merry go round. He raises the assessments, you hire an attorney to appeal and the attorney gets paid. Every connected attorney does tax appeals, to include Madigan. Government always needs more money.

Soon Illinois will be like Greece - all kinds of taxes to pay for the population's insatiable appetite for freebies, only no one is actually paying them. The leftists always take the moral high ground about to justify big government, only they're the first to cheat the gov't. Just look at that asshole Al Franken -- socialist do-gooder and tax cheat.

Yes but their neighbors can file a uniformity reassements of their property value based on the aldecreatures property value been lower & if the city doesn't adjust their taxes file a law suit on behalf of the block against the city... Do they take the ethics training?

Any property owning citizen can protest an evaluation of his property and if he can show the assessor why the evaluation is too high, get it reduced. There is nothing to see here so everybody just move on.

I have the exact replica of the house that Alderman Sposato has but am two blocks away from his. I appealed my large real estate tax increase to the Board of Review and was informed that the Assessor had done it correctly and fairly. Sposato appeals and gets a decrease and I get an increase. Crook County at work!!

Ald. O'Connor's wife is a Real Estate Broker, and has been a Go-To person for developers anyone interested in exploiting Lincoln Square and Albany Park. The O'Connors are millionaires because of what might have been a Conflict of Interest, anywhere but Chicago. But those of us dumb enough to live here, deserve what we get.Where are the Feds on these two? Stay Fetal, Stay Fetal; Baby"G"

You might think that the Assessor's office is some little back water filled with number-cruncher types wearing green eye shades. Hardly. Berrios is probably the wealthiest and most powerful person in Cook County Government.

Here's how it works. You decide to protest your taxes. You hire an attorney. The attorney works on a contingent fee basis. You win your case. You pay the attorney. And the entire cabal of property tax attorneys make massive campaign donations to Berrios. Then every 3 years your property gets re-assessed and the cycle starts all over again.

And now you know why Berrios is also the Chairman of the Cook County Democratic Party.

So Sposato, after voting for the tax increase, turns around and files for a decrease for his own property? All the while collecting a firefighter's pension, an alderman's salary / perks & a future alderman's pension! Free country? The monarchy is alive and well!

Any property owning citizen can protest an evaluation of his property and if he can show the assessor why the evaluation is too high, get it reduced. There is nothing to see here so everybody just move on.

7/31/2016 01:28:00 AM

Are you a cuckold, too? They aren't supposed to screw us in the first place! Someone steals from you and you say it's OK? You must be related to the French collaborators. Give me your lunch money then.

Had my re taxes reduced twice in past 3 yrs.total around $ 600.00. on a 1940's ,1100 sf. single story jolly rancher with a rickety 1 car garage, now paying $5500 yr. after the new increase of $425. as did many of us first responders in the 41st Ward. I'll bet Moreno and Burke both have at least 2-1/2 a 3 times the square footage with 2-3 stories of living space, newer built properties and updated to the max. And their rates go down or been level only paying just about twice as much as me for newer and bigger houses. There's also the fact that these part-time public servants also make twice the government salary than us and have profitable businesses to write off just about everything than want?

I will say that Berrios did streamline the Assessor Office and has made the process of Appeal seems like one can get a fair shake. Getting a 1-2% reduction is not enough to make a big difference but when the pols are getting thousands reduced makes the argument of fairness a bit far fetched from Berrios Family Assoessor Office. Our big government also employs a Treasurer Pappas to collect these funds. Is it necessary to have multi agencies ?

Remember when Little Louie Gutierrez had a newly build house in Wicker Park and was paying little to zero taxes and his daughter buys low and flips high those new houses in the ward with the insider advice from convicted crook Ald Carruthers and the developer? The Assessor "over looked" the sale, demolishing and rebuilding of Louie's new house and the Treasurer "over looked" to collect appropriate taxation.

Above all, there's still Democrat Goofs that just keep squawking about Income Equality being the issue.

" Anonymous said...I have the exact replica of the house that Alderman Sposato has but am two blocks away from his. I appealed my large real estate tax increase to the Board of Review and was informed that the Assessor had done it correctly and fairly. Sposato appeals and gets a decrease and I get an increase. Crook County at work!!"

If you really do live 2 blocks away then use his address specifically as a "comparable" on your appeal, stupid.

Everyone needs to read these 2 articles, especially police officers.It should change how you view the democratic party. If it doesn't change your political views congratulations, you are a fully indoctrinated,brain washed member of the socialist/marxist machine and unable to form an opinion from the facts presented. http://www.lonsberry.com/writings.cfm?story=4010&go=4http://www.lonsberry.com/writings.cfm?story=3651

If you don't think that we are at a critical tipping point in our country after reading the below articles you probably think that working as much vri as you can get will solve all of your problems,your vote at election time means nothing and when you retire you will receive a pension even though you are destroying it by working vri.

People by choice live in a wonderful City like Chicago and enjoy the thousands of amenities you can only find here. Then, they bitch that they have to pay a few taxes on their lovely home in a nice neighborhood. It is like wanting to have your cake and eat it too.

I retired and moved to a smallish town in Alabama. I love it down here. I have more house than I could afford in Chicago and half the taxes. People are friendly and respectful to their police and neighbors. The streets are safe. The hunting and fishing is good. I have a good job that I like. The pay isn't as much but I don't have the aggravation and corruption to put up with either.

It's a sham, a scam, a rigged game for those connected and on the 'in'.. And it's done in plain sight, if any so-called journalist would dare to look..https://www.illinoispolicy.org/meet-the-politicians-who-stand-to-get-rich-off-of-chicagos-massive-property-tax-hike/

Why doesn't the FBI or press look into the fact that O'Connor changed the zoning for the parking lot at Edgewater hospital and his wife was the real estate agent selling the houses they built there. Six percent commission on fifteen houses sold at $750,000 dollars each is $625,000. Kinda a nice bribe.

Anonymous said...I have the exact replica of the house that Alderman Sposato has but am two blocks away from his. I appealed my large real estate tax increase to the Board of Review and was informed that the Assessor had done it correctly and fairly. Sposato appeals and gets a decrease and I get an increase. Crook County at work!!"

"People by choice live in a wonderful City like Chicago and enjoy the thousands of amenities you can only find here."

And people like you slop up the Kool-Aid by the gallon. 1000's of amenities? Utter bull crap. #1, You don't need to live in a shit hole to find amenities. #2, If you need "amenities" to find happiness, you need to reevaluate your priorities.

Live someplace wholesome. With good schools. Lower taxes. With local government that actually delivers quality services. Less crime. Then travel into the city if you need an occasional "amenity fix."

I bought my house from a connected 19th Ward judge. The house is a 2500 square foot brick home. The tax assessment lists it as a1200 square foot frame. After moving in my suspicion was the description was fudged in the assssment to have lower property taxes.

Then my suspicion was corroborated after I run into the aldermans father in law and his brother skinny Sheahan at a local watering hole on Western. The same day the bar hosted a "contest my property tax" event. He is drunk and bragging how his property taxes are 800 a year while his neighbor paid 9000. The connected find ways to take care of each other and screw the rest of us. This city is a fucking joke and I can't wait to get out.

People by choice live in a wonderful City like Chicago and enjoy the thousands of amenities you can only find here. Then, they bitch that they have to pay a few taxes on their lovely home in a nice neighborhood. It is like wanting to have your cake and eat it too.----------------------------------These amenities you speak of, would the Police be one of them? I've seen a marked Police car on my block 3 times in the past 4 years.

Anonymous said...People by choice live in a wonderful City like Chicago and enjoy the thousands of amenities you can only find here. Then, they bitch that they have to pay a few taxes on their lovely home in a nice neighborhood. It is like wanting to have your cake and eat it too.

7/31/2016 03:06:00 PM

What amenities would that be? Living here sucks. Can't wait to move. I"m in one of the better areas too.

Anonymous said...I have the exact replica of the house that Alderman Sposato has but am two blocks away from his. I appealed my large real estate tax increase to the Board of Review and was informed that the Assessor had done it correctly and fairly. Sposato appeals and gets a decrease and I get an increase. Crook County at work!!"

Sposato gets a Disabled Person Tax Exemption.

7/31/2016 07:38:00 PM

Not sure about that. I have an application for a disability exemption in hand. Under who is eligible, it states that you cannot participate in any "substantial gainful activity by reason of a medically determinable physical or mental impairment."

I couldn't' get the exemption until I stopped working. He's still employed as an alderman. My taxes went up substantially on a condo.

"I run into the aldermans father in law and his brother skinny Sheahan at a local watering hole on Western. The same day the bar hosted a "contest my property tax" event. He is drunk and bragging how his property taxes are 800 a year while his neighbor paid 9000."

that is easily checked on the crook county tax roll. what is the address of the alderman's father-in-law and which alderman? happy to look it up and report back.

Not sure about that. I have an application for a disability exemption in hand. Under who is eligible, it states that you cannot participate in any "substantial gainful activity by reason of a medically determinable physical or mental impairment."

I couldn't' get the exemption until I stopped working. He's still employed as an alderman. My taxes went up substantially on a condo.

8/01/2016 01:41:00 PM

Disability exemption is not a big exemption. It's a few hundred dollars which is better than nothing but it is not a substantial reduction in taxes. Definitely wouldn't make until the lower taxes and difference between neighbors homes